HE'S BACK!

One fallout of the 2016 Uri attack was the disappearance of Pakistani actor Fawad Khan from our screens. He returns with Barzakh, a fantasy drama series on ZEE5

- Suhani Singh

A decade back, Pakistani actor Fawad Khan became the poster boy for middle-aged Indian women who swooned over his mature, sensitive portrayals as a dreamy Austenesque hero in romantic dramas like Humsafar and Zindagi Gulzar Hai. They’d earn him a break in Hindi cinema with Khoobsurat (2014), expanding his fan base among a younger generation. Two more Hindi films would follow—Kapoor & Sons and Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (2016)—but soon a terrorist attack in Uri would damage the already fraught relations between the two nations. It would ultimately lead to a boycott of Pakistani artists working in India.

“Collateral damage,” is how Khan looks at it. “We are in a unique situation where the clash spills over to areas that it shouldn’t really,” he says. “Having said that, it hasn’t stopped the exchange of artistic ideas.” Barzakh, produced by India’s Shailja Kejriwal and Pakistan’s Waqas Hassan, is an example of how the creative collaboration continues. The six-episode series is now streaming for free on ZEE5 and the Zee Zindagi YouTube channel.